SketchFactor to Twitterverse: We aren't racist

Is an app that allows users to label neighborhoods 'sketchy' also racist? If the Twitterverse is any measure, the answer is yes. [Decide for yourself here.]

After Crain's on Thursday reported the launch of crowdsourcing navigation app SketchFactor, the Twitterverse erupted in full-throated condemnation. Critics accused the app's co-founders of creating a tool that enabled people to label neighborhoods unsafe based on racial stereotypes.

SketchFactor co-founders Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington are standing by their startup and aren't apologizing for being, as the two acknowledge, young, white and privileged. They still envision their app as an instrument of social good.

"We are who we are," Ms. McGuire told Crain's on Friday morning. "There are a lot of things being said about me out there, but those people don’t know me and they hadn’t even seen the app."

There were indeed a lot of things being said, especially on Twitter. High-octane users like Questlove and Bomani Jones were among those who took Ms. McGuire and Mr. Herrington to task for what they perceived to be a platform for racism.

Tweets like these grew into the hundreds, but Ms. McGuire insists that the people posting them are missing the point of what she and SketchFactor are trying to accomplish. "I've worked in community organizing my whole career and I know the world of public service very well," she said, referring to her past as a Congressional staffer and nonprofit worker in Washington D.C. "It's unfortunate that people are going to run with this racism thing, but we've worked with community organizations and other groups to make this app the best it can be, and we think it is."

Ms. McGuire told Crain's that the social media tempest swirling around SketchFactor prompted her and Mr. Herrington to launch the app Thursday night, earlier than they had planned. Between roughly 7 p.m. on Thursday and noon Friday, Ms. McGuire claims the app has been downloaded an estimated 6,400 times and there are a little over 800 registered users sharing their sketchy stories on the platform.

"We think it's a success," she said.

Also key to Ms. McGuire's victory formula is proving that SketchFactor is not a tool to spread racist perceptions of certain neighborhoods. According to her metrics, there have been at total of 12 racist reports since the app launched, all of them made by two different users who are being shut out from the platform.

Additionally, Ms. McGuire says that there is an entire section on the app to deal with reports of racial profiling, something that she says the site is designed to help identify and combat. Once reported, users who post an incident of racial profiling will be pointed to a resource for assistance.

The final argument that Ms. McGuire is making in her defense is the fact that SketchFactor is a finalist in the NYC BigApps competition, a city-funded contest that promotes new technologies designed to improve quality of life issues in New York City. "They looked at our app and saw the public works value," Ms. McGuire said of the Big Apps selection committee.

A source inside Big Apps told Crain's that the selection of SketchFactor came under particular scrutiny, but that like all other finalists, voters saw both a strong business proposition and its application for public good, essentially meeting the criteria set forth for any BigApps finalist.

A spokeswoman for the EDC, which sponsors the competition, said: "This phase of selection was independent of the de Blasio administration. The final judging panel includes administration officials who will ensure the winning apps comport with Mayor's vision of combating inequality."

Ms. McGuire says the open platform of SketchFactor will prove itself to be racially inclusive and socially positive. What she and Mr. Herrington look like, and where they happen to live, should not be an issue. "The fact that I'm a white woman living in the West Village is just that, a fact," she said. "What this app will do is bigger than me or Daniel and we look forward to seeing that happen."

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